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Loaded question here. I have a part in a song with 3 strings and electric guitar sharing a lead. Each are doing their own thing butit works. Problem is I cant seem to get proper seperation to hear all parts. I have tried scrolling thru with a paremetric and still cant find the sweet spot.

Electric Guitar-chello-viola-violin.

Maybe I could email a MP3 to someone to hear it.

Thanks,

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UncleBob58 Thu, 12/18/2003 - 05:57

Without hearing it it is tough to know what to advise you. I have found, however, that some panning and keeping it VERY DRY will help.

Also think about making each part taking the forefront at different times. And sometimes that "wash of confusion" sound is the right thing. Take some time away from it, listen to it without the lead parts, and start over again. Listen to them without the backup track, maybe that needs a little tweaking. Maybe things are over compressed.

I took some inspiration from the mix of "I Should Have Known" by Amiee Man which has helped me with dense mixes. The drums are MONO! The rest of the rhythm track is panned hard left and right. The mix is very dry. This gave some breathing space to the vocals, solo instruments, and sweetening which swirl around in the spaces between the center and the sides.

Go wild and crazy. You may not keep it but you can be led into new and interesting directions.

:p:

anonymous Thu, 12/18/2003 - 07:13

Originally posted by jazzbass12:
Each are doing their own thing butit works.

Are you sure it works? Often, I think something works, but when I record it I realize it doesn't.

Have you tried listening to the guitar with one of the string instruments to determine which is the most offensive? Or were the strings recorded as a group?

Uncle Bob's suggestions about panning are good. Try to pan apart the most offensive pieces - see if that works...

sammyg Sat, 12/20/2003 - 00:02

I find that sometimes even simple things like who is playing where can make a difference. For example, a string part may be able to go up or down an octave, this can sometimes help.
( or guitar for that matter).

Also, sometimes the actual timbre of the voice may be changed, i have a friend who does this a lot and it seems to work for him, for example, if he is tracking a piano part (from synth), he will record one take, double it, send one hard left and one hard right, then change the timbre of each voice to be different from each other, in the mix it gives it a kind of distinction,
well, i hope I've explained myself well enough, sometimes i know what i wanna say but i dont!